December Baby

Ian and Meg-poo [favorite kiddies ever] wedding:


Christmas Concert [with a couple from Levi's mission]:


So long! Farewell!:

^Awkward pose = the best. White socks = so hawt.

Anime Night [err something..]:


New point-and-shoot camera [with favorite mini feature that I use WAY too often]:


Bowling [Levi's birthday]:

3 things:

1. That is the best score I've ever gotten.

2. I told Levi we weren't going to stop bowling until I beat him.. Needless to say, we played until the bowling alley closed.

3. Yes, there's an F on my score board. Who knew you received official fouls for stepping over the line? Not me.

Gingerbread House:


Grandma's House:


Christmas morning:

Blastoise?

^I'm voting myself best sister for finding this on Amazon.

Homemade pasta:

Sushi:

And more. Life is good.

strawberrystrawberrystrawberrystrawwbeery

My garden finished producing it's first strawberry over the weekend. (:

IF MY LIFE HAD ANY ORDER

Why I Haven't Been Blogging Regularly

Green Canyon hike:


Sister's jr. high Mardi Gras party? ???:

[^ The face of an embarrassed 9th grader. Ke$ha was playing, how could I resist? ]

Morgan Ott's homecoming:

[Sorry, no pictures of Morgan himself- just the house and two besties.]

Valentine's Day:

Mikey made a heart shaped pizza, which we ate while listening to Frank Sinatra and debating which board games to play all night.

Sorry! and a dominated box of chocolates. Good.

Losing My Artistic Bread Braiding Ability

I got home from work at 6:30 this morning. Was it worth the $7.25 to go in at 5:30 and help for an hour? Mmm.. Not really. I always get myself into these things. I'm going on strike, right now. No more volunteering for me, at least until someone is willing to cover one of my shifts. The only days I've been able to get off this whole break were Christmas eve, Christmas, New Years eve, and New Years-- KK gave me 3 days off this last week and since I wasn't double shifting at Curves anymore, I figured I'd try to get my minimal two shifts off so I could spend some more time with my family. Nope. No one would do it.

I covered one of the employees shifts for 2.5 weeks in December and she wouldn't cover 2 weekday shifts for me because she had "plans". Plans? GIRL, you just went on vacation for almost the whole entire break. UGAH. On top of that, I have one of these to pick up tomorrow morning, so I asked the same girl if she'd switch me Saturdays [because the pick up time is right as I get off, and if I don't pick up my basket right then, it gets donated] but, nope again, she's got "plans".

This is the girl I volunteered to help this morning. At 5:30. AM. And yeah, I had plans. I was planning on staying up as long as I wanted to. and sleeping. UNTIL NOON.

Sorry, girl. Never again. Totally striking. Rightn ow.

Since I was up so incredibly early, and couldn't get back to sleep, I decided to check an item off my list and make a few loaves of cardamom bread. [Side note: Cardamom bread is a Swedish bread my family makes every winter. Delicious tradition!] This, my friends, is a 3 hour process. Or takes me 3 hours anyways. Before 10 am, I had also done the dishes, cleaned my room, read from These Is My Words, gone grocery shopping, and listened to Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, ke$ha, and Justin Beiber. Good morning!

[It's supposed to be braided 4 way. Not very pretty, but still, it's an improvement from last time and that's given me hope.]

3.5 Stars for Bengal Spice!

Last night, while trying to study, I ended up googling for a certain type of herbal tea my family drank all the time when I was younger. It was hazelnut.. vanilla.. something and has long since been discontinued as far as I can tell. Though that is incredibly sad news, during the search I found a million kinds that sounded wonderful, so, today after class I went immediately to Smith's. Needless to say, I'm the proud new buyer of:

Peppermint
Sleepytime Vanilla
and Bengal Spice
[ They didn't have Roastaroma at the store ): ]

How splendid! [And expensive- Good thing they were marked down to $2 a box!] I'm currently testing out the new flavors. Mmm.. numnum. 3.5 stars for Bengal Spice! It's delicious and nutritious until the after taste, which makes my tongue fizzle and sizzle due to incredibly massive amount of cinnamon. Maybe milk will balance it out.. or sugar? Ha.

I always end up taste testing drinks over and over until they're sweet enough to consume while thinking-- "Now was that... .5 spoonfuls of sugar.. 2 spoonfuls of sugar.. 5 spoonfuls? UGH." I just never know! Has anyone ever used sugar cubes for anything besides building miniature igloos? I've seriously been thinking about investing in a box, but they're so expensive! It'd be nice to have some sort of consistent sugar pouring system, but I can't decide if it's worth it.

- Remember Frank? -

Well, he had a birthday this week!..

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We celebrated grandpa's birthday on Sunday! (: So fun! And delicious!

[Grandma made 3 flavors of ice cream:
Vanilla Coconut, Chocolate, and Black Walnut]

Yum!

Almost the whole family was there, which is neat because we're a big group and the older we get, the more spread out we seem to be. Here are some pictures of my family [Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Jake, Heidi, Ross, Paige, Tori, Cynthia, Ken, Jordyn, Eryn, Rose, Joel, Primrose [<- our newest member of the family (: ], Cal, Pat, Katrina, Darrell, Tara, Graeme, Laura, Kent, Megan, Sarah, Andrew, Liz, Matt, Steph, Zachary, Steven, Emily, Deb, Paul, Elisha, Russ, Nathan, Kate, Cherstin, Austin, Devan, Doug, Jill, Beau [the injured one], Clay, Jade, Cye, Becky, Karly, Brayden, Jackson, Bryson.. I think that's everyone], the happy bunch that helped celebrate:

I think I've got everyone up there [except Matt, Steph, and Zachary because they left early.] Mike, Ian, and Natalie- We missed you and wished you were there!

Also- Shout out to those who have received their mission calls!

Kelli Russell: Chile
Kayla Gunnell: West Virginia
Lia Cutler: South Korea